{"id":32198,"date":"2016-07-02T13:09:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-02T17:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=32198"},"modified":"2016-07-02T13:09:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-02T17:09:25","slug":"thumbs-7216","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2016\/07\/02\/thumbs-7216\/","title":{"rendered":"Thumbs! (7\/2\/16)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some people have mood swings. I have <strong>Thumbs!<\/strong> swings.<\/p>\n<p>This <strong>Thumbs!<\/strong> article is dedicated to Friday&#8217;s Danville City Council organizational meeting, so it&#8217;s longer than a normal <strong>Thumbs!<\/strong> article. I&#8217;m good with that.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, the same old rules if you haven&#8217;t figured them out by now. <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>UP!<\/strong><\/span> is good. DOWN! is bad.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s bring out the usual Big Board!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Thumbs UP!<\/strong><\/span> to Danville&#8217;s new mayor John Gilstrap and new vice mayor Alonzo Jones. Both Gilstrap &amp; Jones are good people and they have the city&#8217;s best interests in mind. I&#8217;ve got no doubt that they will do a good job in their positions (even that those positions have very little power of controlling anything). I especially look forward to a new style of presiding over meetings and a hopeful push towards more transparency in making the council work sessions televised and\/or recorded. That being said&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Thumbs DOWN!<\/strong><\/span> to Danville&#8217;s new mayor John Gilstrap and new vice mayor Alonzo Jones, along with the Danville Register &amp; Bee. That honeymoon didn&#8217;t last very long, did it? They&#8217;re all getting the <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Thumbs DOWN!<\/strong><\/span> because of the photo spread that appeared in the newspaper (and their website) right after their election. I suppose I could try to believe that John &amp; Alonzo just ran across the river directly after their election to pose for those photos, but I know that didn&#8217;t happen. Yeah, I knew that they were going to be elected to their positions weeks before Friday just like the Register &amp; Bee did.\u00a0 But posing for a victory photo set before the actual election is sorta cocky to me. I know the old phrase &#8220;It ain&#8217;t cocky if you back it up&#8221;, but this set of photos could easily have been looked at as a &#8220;In Your Face&#8221; to Sherman Saunders &amp; Gary Miller. Or maybe this was the first sign of a New Attitude to blast apart the past. Who knows?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Thumbs UP!<\/strong><\/span> to City Clerk Sue DeMasi. She&#8217;s got &#8220;control of the city&#8221; for a few minutes at the start of every biennial term, and she works hard on getting the ceremonial parts of the biennial meeting just perfect. She did it again this time. She told me that she even watched the 2008 meeting on DVD just to remind her how everything went. That&#8217;s dedication!<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Thumbs UP!<\/strong><\/span> to City Attorney Clarke Whitfield. I&#8217;ve been a witness to a Virginia Lottery drawing and they&#8217;ve got nothing on Whitfield&#8217;s randomization process. Whitfield walked into the council chambers shaking up the Magic Cup-O-Numbers and kept shaking it up after each member made their pick.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Thumbs UP!<\/strong><\/span> to Register &amp; Bee photographer Matt Bell. He was able to correctly predict some of the random seat assignment drawing results. Next, we&#8217;re hitting him up for tonight&#8217;s lottery numbers. Heh.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Thumbs UP!<\/strong><\/span> to Fred Shanks. He threw everybody for a hilarious loop when he claimed to have number &#8220;9&#8221; in the drawing when there were only 8 seats available. Everybody looked at each other puzzled until smartass Fred flipped his number over and said &#8220;6&#8221;. He played his practical joke perfectly.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Thumbs UP!<\/strong><\/span> to Sherman Saunders. You could tell that he wasn&#8217;t pleased that his 8-year run as mayor was coming to an end, but Saunders handled it very professionally. I&#8217;ve published the speech that he made during the around the horn section, and it&#8217;s not hard to tell that he wanted to continue on as mayor. Sherman&#8217;s speech already had &#8220;Mayor Gilstrap&#8221; &amp; &#8220;Vice Mayor Jones&#8221; in it, so he knew what was going to happen. With Saunders already knowing that his run was over, I respect him even more for his demeanor during the meeting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I&#8217;m finishing this article, I realized that if I do a BreakDown article on what happened Friday, it will pretty much resemble this <strong>Thumbs!<\/strong> one. I&#8217;ve given you pretty much of what happened and why. Meh. We still may do a BreakDown article on Friday&#8217;s meeting anyway, but now you know a little more behind the scenes. <strong>Thumbs!<\/strong> articles are just as cool, though. Heh.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/7aTEWad.jpg?resize=250%2C250\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some people have mood swings. I have Thumbs! swings.<\/p>\n<p>This Thumbs! article is dedicated to Friday&#8217;s Danville City Council organizational meeting, so it&#8217;s longer than a normal Thumbs! article. I&#8217;m good with that.<\/p>\n<p> [&#8230;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-southsidecentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-8nk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10812,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/26\/thumbs-10262014\/","url_meta":{"origin":32198,"position":0},"title":"Thumbs! (10\/26\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We've got Thumbs! And they're not stuck up our... ...aspirin bottles. What did you think I was going to say? Anyway for our new readers, UP! is good and DOWN! is bad. Let's bring out a brand new Big Board! Thumbs UP! to the Danville chapter of the Blue Knights\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Thumbs!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Thumbs!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/thumbs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7077,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/04\/thumbs-73-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":32198,"position":1},"title":"Thumbs! (7\/4 edition)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"July 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been too long since we got our Thumbs! working. Let's get it started! Thumbs UP! to the new version of Danville City Council. They started off the term in the right way by slecting Sherman Saunders as mayor and made an excellent choice when they voted in David Luther\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Thumbs!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Thumbs!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/thumbs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10310,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/18\/thumbs-9182014\/","url_meta":{"origin":32198,"position":2},"title":"Thumbs! (9\/18\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"September 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's get those Thumbs! working... A Thumbs! Big Board is approaching... Thumbs UP! to Danville City Council for immediately recognizing and trying to help out Madison Whittle with his zoning snafu at Tuesday's meeting. It's a shame that the laws don't give the council the chance to immediately order a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Thumbs!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Thumbs!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/thumbs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8925,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/19\/thumbs-6192014\/","url_meta":{"origin":32198,"position":3},"title":"Thumbs! (6\/19\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"June 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Our Thumbs! are becoming famous. Seriously. Do I really need to tell you the rules of a Thumbs! article? Heh. Thumbs UP! to Adam Tomer. Yes, we've already featured him in his own Thumbs! article but this week was his last official Danville City Council meeting. He's been an excellent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13851,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/08\/31\/thumbs-83115\/","url_meta":{"origin":32198,"position":4},"title":"Thumbs! (8\/31\/15)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"August 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's wrap up the month of August by sticking our Thumbs! in the air. UP! is Good. DOWN! is Bad. DIAGONALLY! is Impossible. Here comes that Big Board! Thumbs UP! to the Virginia Flaggers. Yeah, I said that. In a first for the group, they put up a Third National\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Thumbs!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Thumbs!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/thumbs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/7aTEWad.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10140,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/01\/thumbs-912014\/","url_meta":{"origin":32198,"position":5},"title":"Thumbs! (9\/1\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"September 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it's been a while and my Thumbs! were getting rusty. Nobody likes rusty Thumbs! Here's the guidelines. UP! = Good. DOWN! = Bad. Let's bring on the Big Board... Thumbs DOWN! to Danville City Council's recent use of the \"consent agenda\". I know that a consent agenda is used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Thumbs!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Thumbs!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/thumbs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32201,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32198\/revisions\/32201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}